I think President Moon of South Korea deserves the Nobel Peace Prize and I have no doubt that his name will be submitted, although the names of nominees will not be released for another 50 years unless he or she wins.

The Nobel Prize was established by the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel in 1895. Actual award of prizes began in 1901 in areas of chemistry, literature, peace, physics and physiology or medicine. The prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden, with the exception of the Peace Prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway. Each recipient, called laureate, receives a gold medal and about one million dollars. Most importantly, the Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field it is awarded.

Nominations can be submitted by many different groups which include members of national assemblies, governments, university professors, and former recipients. Nominations are submitted to the Committee by the beginning of February in the award year.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 98 times to 131 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2017, 104 individuals and 27 organizations. One organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has been awarded the Peace Prize three times in 1917, 1944 and 1963, while another, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has been awarded the Peace Prize twice in 1954 and 1981. The 2017 Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Why do I think President Moon is qualified to receive the Prize? Consider the requirement for the Peace Prize, which is that the Prize should be awarded to the person who, during the preceding year, "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Consider that there has been enormous pressure on President Moon to prepare for stronger defense by accepting nuclear weapons and by providing maximum efforts to isolate North Korea. The pressure has been coming not only from half the Korean people who are the conservative segment of Korean society, but also from the most important alliance, United States.

President Moon steadfastly rejected those ideas. He even proposed financial assistance to North Korea, by claiming that humanitarian assistance and military preparedness should be separated.

Who-else could possibly deserve the Nobel Peace Prize more than President Moon who exhibited such courage for peace over war?

The other side of the coin is not that clear, however. Among the many, if not most, worthy recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, there were some questionable ones, too,

In 2007, former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." According to Factcheck.org, however, Gore's house consumed 191,000 kilowatt-hours while the amount of electricity used by the typical house in Nashville where his house was located was about 15,600 kilowatt-hours in 2006.

Apparently, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mr. Gore for his public support for the cause, overlooking his private practice.

In 2009, the newly-elected President of the United States, Barack Obama, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." In 2009, President Obama did not have time to do anything to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation beyond wonderful presentations as to what he believes should be done to promote international cooperation.

By the end of his two-term presidency in 2017, President Obama's achievements include: a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq that led to the emergence of extreme Islamic terrorists who beheaded many innocent people, inaction of redline he himself drew against cruel Syria dictator that effectively expanded the killing field of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and no action against North Korea that allowed North Korea to virtually complete their nuclear weapons program.

Finally in 2000, President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular." I have no doubt that his intention was noble and admirable.

Through excessive trust of North Korean leaders, the sunshine policy of President Kim was partly responsible for the sun to shine more on development of nuclear weapons in the North than on peaceful relation of the two Koreas.

The explanation of why President Kim won the Peace Prize can be applied, word by word, to why President Moon deserves the same prize.

My only concern is that the sunshine policy 2.0 of President Moon may also allow the sun to shine, less on peaceful existence of the two Koreas, but more on absorption of South Korea to North Korea.

Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies.